Bedtime Story
by Shroomie
Summary: A babysitter tells a story of a very unusual princess named Buffy. . .


Author: Shroomie  
  
Title: Bedtime Story  
  
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Joss owns everything. Life is so unfair that way.  
  
Summary: A babysitter tells a story of a very unusual princess. . .  
  
Notes: Set in the future. Assumes Buffy was never brought back to life.  
  
*** "Tell me a story? Please, please, please, please, puh-lease!" The little girl staring up at him was all ready for bed, complete with pink pajamas, the kind with the little feet attached. She turned on her best puppy dog eyes, hoping they would work. They did.  
  
"Alright, Lizzy, but just one." Sighing, he reached down and picked her up, smiling as she put her arms around his neck and her head on his shoulder.  
  
After getting her all tucked in, making sure not to forget the stuffed animals, he began. "Once upon a time,"  
  
"Make it a nice story, not like the yucky, creepy ones you tell William," Lizzy interrupted.  
  
"Fine. Once upon a time," he began again.  
  
"And put a princess in it," she interrupted again.  
  
He bit his tongue, trying to stay patient. "Okay, a princess then. Once,"  
  
"And she has to be a pretty princess too," she interrupted yet again.  
  
"Look, do you want a story or not?" he asked in exasperation. When she frowned at his raised voice, he instantly felt guilty.  
  
"Sorry," he took a deep breath, "Let's start again, are you ready this time?" She nodded solemnly. "Good. Once upon a time there was a princess named Buffy."  
  
Her face broke into a smile as he continued, "Now, she was the most beautiful princess anyone had ever seen. She had hair like sunshine and eyes that sparkled like stars. Everywhere she went, people were happy just to get to see her."  
  
Lizzy started to say something but stopped. He noticed. "What?" he asked. She spoke tentatively, "Did Buffy wear pretty dresses?"  
  
He smiled. "Yup, the prettiest." Lizzy beamed and he started up again. "Well, this princess was special. You see, she was a hero. She fought for good, to protect her kingdom and its people, fought against all of the bad things in the world."  
  
"What types of bad things?" she wanted to know.  
  
He thought for a minute, a slightly sinister smile appearing on his face. "Well, let's see, she fought vampires, and demons, and monsters,"  
  
Lizzy's eyes grew wide as he spoke. "M-monsters?" He nodded, leaning forward, motioning her in closer.  
  
As she leaned in, he whispered, "Monsters, like gooey ones and ones with lots of eyes and," he paused for dramatic effect, "TICKLE MONSTERS!!" he yelled as he started tickling her.  
  
She squealed with laughter, giggling so sweetly that he was forced to join her. It took a few minutes for them both to settle back down.  
  
He continued, "Yeah, this princess was good at fighting the monsters. She was a great fighter and she always won."  
  
"Always?" Lizzy asked in awe. He nodded. "Wow," she said. "Could Princess Buffy have beaten even you?"  
  
"Well," he thought about that, smiling to himself. "Yep, she could beat me. Princess Buffy was the best. She had lots of friends who all loved her very much and she loved them. And she even had a little sister, who she loved more than anything in the world. One day, an evil sorceress named Glory came to their kingdom. You see, Glory had been kicked out of her home because she was bad."  
  
"Was she very bad?" Lizzy asked.  
  
"She was the worst. But she was very strong, so strong that the people weren't sure if Buffy could beat her. Glory wanted to go back to her home, which would have been fine except the only way to do that would be to kill Buffy's sister." He stopped for a moment here, caught up in his own thoughts.  
  
"What happened?" Lizzy asked, excited to hear the ending.  
  
He smiled at the little girl. "The sorceress Glory kidnapped Buffy's sister, taking her up to the highest tower to kill her. She started the magic to open the door so she could go home by cutting Buffy's sister." He made a slashing motion with his hand and Lizzy gasped.  
  
"The door started to open, but before Glory could go through, Buffy started fighting her. It was a long fight, and Buffy get hurt pretty bad, but in the end, she killed Glory."  
  
"Yay!" Lizzy smiled. "Good story."  
  
"It's not over yet," he cautioned her. "Because Glory had opened the door, bad things were coming into Buffy's kingdom. The only way for her to stop them from coming would be to close the door. But to do that, she would have to kill her sister, and Buffy couldn't do that."  
  
He paused, his voice quivering slightly as he continued. "Buffy knew that the only other way to stop the bad things from coming in and hurting all of the people was for her to jump into the door. It would close the door, but it would also kill her."  
  
"What did she do?" Lizzy's eyes grew big again.  
  
His smile returned, somewhat sad, as he said, "She jumped. She saved her sister and the whole world. She was a hero." He looked down at the little girl in bed. "The End."  
  
She thought about it for a second before declaring, "Good story." She looked over his shoulder at the woman who had come to stand in the doorway while he was talking. "Is that a true story Mommy?" Lizzy asked.  
  
The woman walked into the room. "Yes, sweetie, it is." She leaned over to kiss her daughter on the forehead, saying, "Now you go to sleep."  
  
As Lizzy called out her goodnights, the woman walked out of the room and down the stairs. He followed her, grabbing his jacket, preparing to leave.  
  
"Thanks for babysitting Spike," she said as he walked into the night.  
  
The vampire turned around, nodding his head slightly. "Any time, Bit, any time," he said quietly as he disappeared into the darkness. 


End file.
